Calls grow for Mboweni to fire former political journalist Ranjeni Munusamy

Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy. Picture: Alon Skuy/African News Agency (ANA) Archives

Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy. Picture: Alon Skuy/African News Agency (ANA) Archives

Published Oct 22, 2020

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Durban – The DA has added its voice to the call for Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to reverse his decision to hire former political journalist, Ranjeni Munusamy.

DA spokesperson on finance, Geordin Hill-Lewis said Munusamy's appointment was "unwise and ill-considered".

He said the appointment should be reversed until allegations levelled against Munusamy were properly tested and aired.

"This appointment has, for the first time, brought allegations of state capture corruption into the heart of the Treasury. Ms Munusamy has not been charged or tried for the allegations she faces. However, they are of a serious and credible nature, and her explanation of events is so suspicious – that it would have been better not to make this appointment until such time and if she has been cleared of all accusations," he said.

On Wednesday, the EFF demanded Mboweni immediately discontinue any contractual and employment relationship with Munusamy.

They have given Mboweni seven days to fire Munusamy.

"We make this demand because we will not stand by and do nothing when state institutions are being infiltrated by a cabal of highly compromised individuals," the EFF's Vuyani Pambo said.

News of Munusamy’s hiring came to light when Mboweni tweeted a picture of his speech writing team.

“The core MTBPS speech-drafting team meeting today, October 20, 2020, to work on how to frame the speech. This is how it works: based on the Cabinet budget fiscal framework, different teams in the National Treasury write chapters in the big document, the core team drafts the speech,” reads Mboweni’s tweet.

Some Twitter users questioned how Mboweni could employ Munusamy, who, according to testimony by police investigator Colonel Kobus Roelofse at the state capture commission in September last year, unduly benefited from the rampant abuse of the crime intelligence slush fund.

Roelofse was investigating the abuse which allegedly happened on Richard Mdluli’s watch when he got information that around 2008, Munusamy had run into financial difficulties. Allegedly, money from the fund was used to pay off a vehicle debt of R143 621.78 to WesBank Vehicle Finance.

Munusamy and her lawyers have yet to disprove Roelofse's findings.

The Ministry of Finance said: "Ms Ranjeni Munusamy is appointed in the Ministry of Finance as a community outreach officer. It is the prerogative of the minister who he appoints to his team as per the prescripts of the Ministerial Handbook."

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